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32323997415715 Essential Logo Design Considerations for Creating a More Effective Brand Identityhttps://espresso.digital/essential-logo-design-considerations/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=essential-logo-design-considerations
Thu, 23 May 2019 18:00:22 +0000https://espresso.digital/?p=6635Your brand logo is the most important component of an effective brand identity and strategy, so careful consideration should be given to the type of logo that will work best for your business or product brand. We work with a lot of different logos in a variety of web and print projects, and we are always surprised by how many logos miss the mark in one or more areas. To help you do better here are some essential logo design considerations.

The Importance of Your Brand Logo

A little while ago we wrote about the importance of establishing an effective brand. In that post we touched on the importance of a noticeable and recognizable brand logo and gave you some very basic logo design tips. Today I want to dive a bit deeper into that topic by providing you with a few essential logo design considerations to help you create an effective brand identity.

Your brand logo is not just another visual element that you create to promote your business or product brand. It is the single most recognizable part of your brand identity. A truly effective brand logo works to identify your brand in a basic visual format. Look at brands like Apple, Nike, or Rakuten, and you will see what I mean.

Of course, you will have a website, social media pages, business cards, and perhaps even brochures and other branded marketing collateral. That all helps to build your brand identity and introduce your brand to your target audience. But only when the brand logo design for your company is remarkable enough to stand out and get noticed.

The Importance of Brand Logos for Brand Identity

Simply put, your brand logo will become the image or visual identity of your business. It is the most visible aspect of your overall brand identity. And in 2019 an effective brand identity is essential if you want to rise above the digital noise. The following logo design considerations will get you started.

No matter what service or product you offer, there are thousands of other businesses that will offer the same, and they also will attempt to catch the attention of your target audience. Therefore, a successful business is the one that has created a unique brand identity for itself. That allows consumers to immediately reach that company’s products and services.

Creating the Right Brand Logo Instead of Simply a Brand Logo

There are of course many different ways to create an effective brand identity, and brand logos are just one of them. But brand logos tend to get noticed more than any other aspect of your brand identity. Which means getting just the right brand logo is absolutely essential.

We work with a lot of logos provided by our clients for use in a variety of web and print projects. It always surprises us how many brand logos miss the mark in one or more areas. Some logos are not reflective of the business or service, and others are just plain bad design. We even had one recent client mention their logo “looks like moldy bread.” Not quite the brand identity they had in mind!

When our creative teams design brand identities and brand logos for our global clients, we always ask them to focus on the following logo design considerations, so I thought it would be helpful to share those with you as well.

15 Essential Logo Design Considerations

1 – Start with the Basics

Different Logo Types

Logos generally come in two different types, vector logos and image logos. Generally, we do NOT recommend using image logos; at small sizes image details are lost to the viewer. Another consideration is that image logos don’t work well at different sizes, but vector logos can be scaled up or down to fit any requirements without any loss of quality.

Logo Variations

At the very least you should have a color and a black only version of your logo. Depending on the logo design you may need both horizontal and vertical versions, and you may also want to consider getting versions of your logo to be used on social media profiles and as a favicon on your website.

File Types

Always get your brand logo in the following file formats so that you can use it for any application:

PRINT (hi-res) versions should include EPS files with text converted to outlines, TIFF and JPEG files.

WEB (lo-res) versions should include JPEG and PNG or SVG files.

2 – Choose Your Design Style

The next of my logo design considerations focuses on your design style. You can use various design styles when creating a logo, but to pick the best one, you need to focus on what type of brand identity you are trying to create.

Generally bold and modern designs work well for startups and tech firms, and a more traditional and conservative approach is usually best for firms in the financial and insurance field. Feminine styles work better in the health and beauty industry. These are just some basic logo design considerations, of course.

3 – Get Inspired

Inspiration is an often-overlooked logo design consideration, but it is essential. If you want to create a unique brand logo you need to start with a unique idea. Sometimes they are hard to come by.

One of my own favorite ways to get inspired is to visit a museum, or your local bookstore. Take a look at the work of famous logo designers, but don’t copy their work! Review your own previous work, or that of your colleagues. Take a look at nature’s designs. All of these will provide you with plenty of inspiration to create your brand logo.

4 – Be Different

The next of my logo design tips is to be different. To rise above the digital noise, you must distinguish yourself as a brand with a distinct style. Rather than copy another design or style, be innovative and stand out from the crowd.

So, how can you be different? Start by breaking the rules of design and taking risks. Why not try a variety of logo design styles to find the one that works best for your business or product brand? Experiment with different color combinations until you find one that makes your brand image original.

5 – Create Balance

One of the most essential logo design tips is to strike a certain balance. Balance is important in logo design because our minds naturally perceive a balanced design as being more pleasing and appealing. Try to keep your logo balanced by keeping the “weight” of the logo graphics, colors, and size roughly equal on each side.

Of course, the rule of balance can be broken if required. I have designed a number of very unique and effective logos that way. But always remember that your brand logo will be viewed by your intended target audience, the people you need to convert. Not many of them will be actual artists themselves. It is better to err on the side of balance.

6 – Keep It Simple

This is not only one of my logo design considerations, but one of my mantras for my design teams. Keep it simple! Most people are not smart enough to understand complicated. Therefore, the simpler your brand logo, the more recognizable it will be.

I mentioned some highly recognizable brand logos earlier in this post. For example, the Nike swoosh is an extremely simple logo and one of the most recognizable in the world. Follow that example. Pare your brand logo design down to its essentials by leaving out all unnecessary elements.

7 – Try a Minimal Design

Based on the above logo design tip, I always recommend a minimal approach to logo design. It is one of the most effective ways to create a memorable brand identity. Remove all excessive elements. Keep only those colors, shapes, lines, symbols, fonts that are required to convey a message. Any element that is unnecessary occupying the logo design space should be eliminated.

8 – Focus on Brand Recognition

Any essential brand logo design considerations need to include brand recognition. You can create an awesome brand logo, but will it stand out and be recognizable? That is the key question you need to ask yourself here!

The whole point of creating a brand logo is to build brand recognition. But, how do you go about doing this? Basically, it means crating a brand logo that the average Joe can easily relate to your product or service. This will vary from brand to brand, but it always includes the following: size, style, color, typography, and originality.

Overlooking any of these during the logo design process will impair the quality of your final product. Examine your brand logo design and see whether it meets all of these criteria.

9 – Give It Meaning

An effective brand logo must have some meaning; it must convey a message of some sort. Merely seeing a brand logo on a product or advertisement will not make it memorable. So how can you convey your brand message simply and succinctly?

First of all, you need to have an actual brand message or strategy. Write this down on paper. Then, see if your brand logo conveys that message. It should show the intent behind the design. Any effective brand logo is a concise visual representation of your brand. Make it so even prospective consumers are able to easily understand and describe the purpose.

10 – Make It Scalable

Your logo will be used in a number of print and web applications at different sizes and resolutions, including websites, business cards, stationery, marketing materials, promotional items, etc. And it has to look good and be legible at all of these sizes.

Your brand logo needs to look good and be easy to identify regardless if it is small or large. For this reason, we always recommend keeping your logo design as simple as possible. Small details and text become almost impossible to see clearly below a certain size. Therefore, bold graphics and text will make your logo stand out much more.

A logo is not effective if it loses too much definition when scaled down for letterheads, envelopes, and small promotional items, think trade show swag. But your brand logo also has to look good when used for larger formats, such as vehicle wraps, posters, billboards, and in electronic formats such your online presence and social media profiles, web apps and even high definition TV.

11 – Sketch It Out First

Sketches are an important first step and need to be party of any essential logo design considerations. When our creative teams start any logo designs their MacBook Pros are not their first tools. They start the logo designs as simple doodles on paper napkins and evolve that to sketches on paper. These are not for clients, but simply to try out ideas and concepts.

Even in a very rough format this will give you a good idea how different concepts pan out, and how different design elements work together. If nothing seems to work, start over and begin sketching new ideas. Sooner or later you will get something you can take to the next stage.

12 – Start in Black and White

The next of my logo design tips stems from many years of experience. Whenever I or my teams showed colored design concepts to clients, they could not reach a decision, and we had to start over. There is a simple reason for this. Different concepts in different colors were simply too overwhelming. Working in black-and-white provided both better results, and faster decisions.

Another thing to consider is that your brand logo should be equally effective in black and white. There are many instances when you will be printing the logo without colors. When publishing your advertisements in a newspaper, the logo will generally appear without colors. Plus, a one-color logo can be both highly effective, and cheaper to print.

13 – Be Careful with Colors and Color Combinations

Once you have arrived at a basic black-and-white logo you can start adding colors. But don’t go overboard with this. Color theory is complex, but if you understand the basics you can use color to your brand advantage.

Here are some basic rules to keep in mind:

Use colors near to each other on the color wheel (e.g. for a “warm” palette, use red, orange, and yellow hues).

Don’t use colors that are so bright that they are hard on the eyes.

The logo must also look good in black and white, grayscale, and two colors.

Breaking the rules sometimes is okay; just make sure you have a good reason to!

Knowing how colors evoke feelings and moods is equally important. For example, red can evoke feelings of aggression, love, passion, and strength. Yellow is considered innovative, blue represents conservative, and greens evoke feelings of nature and sustainability.

Keep this in mind as you try out different color combinations and try to match the color to the overall tone and feel of the brand. Playing around with individual colors on their own is another of our essential logo design considerations. Some brands are recognizable solely by their distinct color.

14 – Choose Fonts Carefully

Next on my list of essential logo design considerations are fonts. There used to be a saying in graphic design that the designer with the most fonts wins. But that is not applicable to logo design. Choosing the right font type and size is much more difficult than many beginner designers realize.

If your logo design includes text, either as part of the logo or in the tagline, you will need to spend time sorting through various font types and testing them in your design before making a final decision. Try both serif fonts and sans-serif fonts as well as script, italics, bold, and custom fonts.

Consider three main points when choosing a font to accompany your logo design:

Avoid the most commonly used fonts, such as Comic Sans, or else your design may come off as amateurish.

Make sure the font is legible when scaled down, especially with script fonts.

One font is ideal; avoid having more than two.

Strongly consider a custom font for your design. The more original the font, the more it will distinguish the brand. Examples of successful logos that have a custom font are Yahoo!, Twitter, and Coca Cola.

15 – Go Easy on Effects

And the last of our essential logo design considerations is to please go easy on applying effects! Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and other graphic design programs are extremely powerful logo design tools and have many filters and effects that can be applied to a logo. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you should do so.

Our creative team, myself included, love to play around with different effects. It’s definitely cool to see what can be done, and how far you can push the creative envelope. But some of that is better kept in the design labo instead of springing it on your target audience. Trust me on that one.

Final Thoughts on Logo Design

When executed correctly, a logo is a powerful asset for your brand. It is essential for developing your brand image and building brand awareness. However, creating an effective visual representation of your brand requires a lot more than simply graphic design.

If you carefully follow our essential logo design considerations, you will end up with an effective brand logo that you can use for all your web and print needs without unpleasant surprises down the road. And you are certainly able to design your own brand logo using readily available software and resources.

I do recommend that you stay with the industry standards and avoid free tools that usually provide questionable results at best. And if you really want to pay $ 99.00 or less for a complete logo design package let me warn you. You will simply end up with a cheap logo, which in turn will make your brand look cheap as well.

Usually there are specific brand logo design considerations specific to your business or product brand. You may want to discuss our logo design tips with a professional designer to be sure you actually meet your brand and business objectives. If you agree we would love to help you.

Feel free reach out to us and learn more about brand development and logo design services. Our team can help you determine exactly what type of brand logo and image you really need, and apply our logo design tips to help you create the brand assets you need to attract, engage and convert your target audience.

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So, How Is Your Brand Logo?

Now that you read this post how do you feel about your brand logo? Did our logo design tips help you create an effective brand image? Or do you feel that your brand development may be missing the mark? If so, what do you think is missing from your brand logo or image? Please feel free to let us know so our audience can benefit as well, and grab our feed so you don’t miss our next post! And feel free to share these logo design tips with your audience!

]]>6635What Are WordPress Website Updates, And Why Are They So Important?https://espresso.digital/what-are-wordpress-website-updates-and-why-are-they-so-important/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-are-wordpress-website-updates-and-why-are-they-so-important
Mon, 20 May 2019 18:00:58 +0000https://espresso.digital/?p=69743Do you consider WordPress updates to be a nuisance, or simply forget about them? Or do you confuse WordPress updates with updating your website content or images? Here is what you need to know about keeping your WordPress site updated, how you can make regular updates, and what happens if you don't.

WordPress Updates are Not Content Updates!

Many of our clients misunderstand WordPress website updates. To them website updates simply mean replacing a few images and adding some new content. To WordPress web designers like us the term has a much different meaning. WordPress website updates have nothing to do with your website content, even so fresh updated content is equally important to the health of your website.

In this context WordPress website updates refer to updating your WordPress core, plugins, and database as required. If you have a WordPress website for your company or product brand you have probably noticed the update notices on your WordPress admin dashboard. While you may feel like ignoring them, these updates are vital to keep your website running and secure.

I want to help you better understand what WordPress website updates are and how they can affect your WordPress website. I will go over what they are, why there seem to be so many updates, why these website updates are so important, how to update your website, and what happens if you don’t make regular website updates.

What Exactly Are WordPress Updates?

Good question! As I already mentioned we are not talking about website content updates here. WordPress website updates can be grouped into four distinct categories:

Core Updates

At times critical or core updates become available for your WordPress files. A critical WordPress website update means there could be an issue with your WordPress website. Ignoring this type of issue or update can impact your site significantly.

Basically, this type of update means that there has been a change to the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) itself. Usually this type of update involves a completely new version of WordPress, including a new version number and name. As of this post the latest version of WordPress is 5.2, named “Jaco” for the Jazz musician Jaco Pastorius.

Here is a little tidbit for your next trivia night; all WordPress versions are named after famous (or not so famous) Jaz musicians. Here is a complete list of WordPress names and versions that you can use to really impress your friends, if you are a nerd like me, that is.

Security Updates

Most WordPress core updates are the result of or include a security update. As WordPress is made aware of new security threats, they will introduce fixes to overcome any vulnerabilities and close any loopholes. This will help prevent the take-over of your WordPress website by hackers or malware.

While WordPress core updates are usually a few weeks apart security updates, or “bug fixes” can be much more frequent. And they are the most critical for the overall health and security of your WordPress website! The longer you wait before updating, the more at risk your WordPress site becomes.

Performance Updates

The last of my WordPress website updates involves performance issues, such as your image optimization or page speed. When your WordPress website and plugins are properly updated for the best performance possible, your website visitors will have a better user experience.

Why Are There So Many Updates?

These days it seems like there are WordPress website updates every day! I swear that I can update one of my own WordPress websites or blogs, go for a cup of coffee or some Ramen, and when I come back a new update is ready to install. If it is not WordPress itself that is out of date one or more plugins want your attention. So why is that? Is WordPress out to get you?

You can rest assured that is not the case, no matter how much it appears to be. As a matter of fact, the opposite is true. WordPress website updates actually have your back! Automattic, the company behind WordPress, tests the WordPress platform on an ongoing basis to find any bugs and provide the best possible experience.

And just like updates for smartphones, laptops, and web apps, website updates generally introduce new features, eliminate problems, and maintain the best possible user experience for your website visitors. Along with the actual website updates, WordPress plugins that run on your WordPress website are also being tested and updated as often as WordPress itself, and usually more often.

Why Are WordPress Updates So Important?

For Site Security

Because WordPress is the most popular CMS out there it is also a huge target for hackers. And hackers are busy exploiting any and all loopholes in your WordPress website. WordPress developers are constantly fixing security breaches and vulnerabilities and these protections are released in newly updated versions of WordPress.

To Keep Themes and Plugins Updated

The WordPress core is not the only security or performance issue on your WordPress website. Your WordPress themes and plugins are equally at risk. Outdated themes and plugins can cause a variety of issues, from degraded page speed all the way to serious compatibility and security risks. With regular updates, you can eliminate these risks by simply keeping all of your themes and plugins updated at the same time.

To Keep Your Website Running Smoothly

By not keeping on top of WordPress website updates you are not benefiting from new bug fixes or improvements that keep your site running at its best. Some updates may be relatively minor, so you will not notice anything amiss if you don’t keep your site updated. Other updates may include coding changes. Old versions of your themes and plugins may not work as well, or not at all.

The updates help our WordPress websites perform at the highest level possible for that period of time. But even after an update is released, developers from all over the world explore and experiment to find new, better ways to provide security, solve problems, or introduce new features.

What Are the Most Important Things to Keep Updated?

There are many components of a WordPress website that you will need to keep updated. That includes your actual WordPress themes, including your active theme and one backup theme, as well as your plugins or extensions. You will also need to update your WordPress database as needed.

If you simply have a blog or small business website your updates will be relatively limited. But if you run an online store or membership site your updates can be quite extensive, and require some planning ahead, and a backup plan, just in case!

How to Update Your WordPress Website

Backup First, Update Later!

Any time that you update your WordPress website, themes and plugins you may run into compatibility issues. Not all theme or plugin developers update their products at the same time. For instance, your WordPress theme may be updated, but some of your plugins may not. And they may not work with your new theme. Or your updated plugins no longer work with an outdated version of your theme.

Therefore, I cannot stress the importance of making a full backup of your site before starting any WordPress website updates! That way, if something goes wrong with your website updates you can simply restore your site from your backup and proceed from there to fix any problems with your files or database.

Don’t Make All WordPress Website Updates at Once!

The next thing to remember is to make your website updates one step at a time, and check to make sure that your site still looks and functions the same after each update. If everything looks good you can make the next update.

I recommend updating your version of WordPress first, followed by your active and backup WordPress themes. Your plugins should be done last, and one at a time. That way you will have a much easier time to pinpoint any potential compatibility issues.

And remember to make a backup before each individual update. I really cannot stress that enough!

Other WordPress Update Considerations

WordPress Theme Updates

Sometimes WordPress theme updates can change the appearance or functionality of your WordPress website in unintended ways. Perhaps the theme developer replaced some basic code or made style changes. This can affect how visitors view and interact with your WordPress site.

Before you update your active theme, I recommend you read the update release notes to see if anything may interfere with the way your website looks and feels. At least that way you can plan ahead or consult with your theme developer.

WordPress Plugin Updates

WordPress plugins or extensions are independent pieces of software designed by developers outside of WordPress. When WordPress releases updates to its core software, it is the developer’s responsibility to keep their plugins up-to-date, but not all of them do so. As a matter-of-fact, here is a list of 3,000+ abandoned WordPress plugins you may want to check out!

Therefore, I always recommend that before you even consider installing any plugin you research the plugin, read reviews and check when it was last updated. Any plugin that has not been updated within the last two (2) years is considered outdated and abandoned. Once installed, it is up to you to make sure you have the latest version or find a suitable replacement.

Software Conflicts

WordPress software and website updates usually go smoothly, but occasionally they conflict with each other and can trigger malfunctions that will result in a poor user experience for your visitors at best or bring your WordPress website down completely at worst.

Should You Update Your Own WordPress Site?

Of course, it is possible to perform these website updates yourself. But doing it properly is quite time consuming and risky. And as I mentioned there seem to be endless website updates. Is this really the best use of your valuable time?

Therefore, it may be better to have your website updates performed regularly by a professional WordPress developer who knows what they are doing, and has the resources and skills required to resolve any issues that may arise from the update.

WordPress website updates should be part of any WordPress maintenance plan. If you do not have one, I highly recommend you look into the benefits of a WordPress maintenance plan. Many WordPress developers offer WordPress maintenance as part of their services, so find out if yours does.

What Happens If You Don’t Update Your WordPress Website?

Not knowing what’s happening behind the scenes can make these updates seem unimportant. Because these website updates come so frequently, it is easy to brush them off as an inconvenience. Or we can simply convince ourselves that an update isn’t something we really need, right now!

So, what happens if you don’t make regular website updates? Well, not much at first. However, if you want to get the most out of your WordPress website, you need to make regular updates to your WordPress site and the plugins you are using.

Here are a few reasons why that is in your best interest.

Security Threats

WordPress security updates prevent hackers from compromising your website and causing problems for your visitors. These website updates are important to pay attention to because the longer you go without updating, the more at risk your WordPress website becomes.

Performance Issues

WordPress performance updates are equally beneficial for you and for your website visitors. Because bugs or glitches can appear in your version of WordPress, or the theme and plugins that you use on your WordPress site, performance updates are essential for removing them so that you do not run into problems or performance issues.

When your WordPress website is properly updated for the best performance and user experience possible, your visitors will have a better user experience. This will prevent them from running into usability and other problems that may force them to leave your site, and head on over to your competitors.

Degraded User Experience

In 2019 providing the best possible usability and user experience is absolutely essential if you want a user-friendly website. WordPress feature updates are usually more spaced out than security and critical updates, but they can often have the biggest impact. It is important to pay close attention to these updates as they will help you create the best possible website for your business or product brand.

Final Thoughts on Updating WordPress

In the world of WordPress development, new and updated is always better! By keeping your WordPress website updated regularly, you will benefit from improvements and changes that will make your life easier, keep your website looking and working at its best and help your readers, users or customers have a more user-friendly experience on your website.

With each new update that WordPress releases, you will find that the new versions of the WordPress core and your theme and plugins gives you improved options for customizing your WordPress website, fixes problems and bugs that a recent update may have caused, and will provide you with improved security and protection from hackers.

So, it is in your best interest to make regular WordPress website updates. They will provide you with peace of mind that your WordPress site is protected and running smoothly. And they will provide your website visitors with the usability and user experience they require to meet their expectations and keep them coming back.

If you do not feel comfortable making your own WordPress website updates we are here to help.

Do You Need Help Making WordPress Website Updates?

With the ever-increasing importance of keeping your WordPress website updated and secure, you don’t want to risk missing WordPress website updates. Doing so will put you at risk of a security breach, diminished website performance, or a degraded website user experience.

By using this form you agree with the storage and handling of your data by this website. Learn more.

And if you are still not sure what all goes into user-friendly web design, don’t worry! Simply reach out and contact us. Our expert team will listen to you, answer your questions, and determine the best way to remove the obstacles in the way of your business objectives and continued growth. It is one of our specialties, after all!

Are You Updating Your WordPress Website?

Are you performing regular updates on your site? How is that working out for you? Are WordPress website updates talking too much of your time? Or do you have any other questions or concerns regarding your website updates? Please feel free to let us know so our audience can benefit as well and grab our feed so you don’t miss our next post! And feel free to share our post with your audience!

]]>69743Why Usability is Essential for a User-Friendly Website!https://espresso.digital/user-friendly-website-usability/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=user-friendly-website-usability
Thu, 16 May 2019 18:00:34 +0000https://espresso.digital/?p=69729So you have a website. Great, but does it actually meet your user expectations? If you want a user-friendly website that will support your short and long-term business objectives you need to focus on usability and user experience. Let me show you why that is important, and how you can use that to your online advantage.

The Usability Factor

Have you ever wondered what exactly makes a user-friendly website? Is it the design? Could the color palette or font size play a role? Is it the content? Or how fast the site loads on your iPhone? All of these things certainly play a role in creating a user-friendly website. But the key factor of any website is the user experience based on usability. That one aspect can make or break your website, trust me!

A few years ago, my wife and I were on the site of a major US credit card company. We wanted to pay our bill, which you would think would be of interest to the company. But we could not figure out how to do that! Even worse, when we called customer service the nice woman trying to help us could not figure it out either. So, this was anything but a user-friendly site.

It had nothing to do with the design or the content. This site simply failed the usability test. We were unable to use the site to do what we intended to. And because we had such a bad user experience, we actually switched credit card companies. Not because of their product or interest rates. Because of their website usability!

What Exactly is Usability?

Let’s start with defining usability. Website usability is sometimes also referred to as user experience. In basic terms it means keeping your website simple, user-friendly and easy to use. That is the advice I have given to my global clients, and my design teams, for over 20 years now. Keep it simple, stupid! It’s the only thing that will work.

There is a very elemental rule of thumb when designing a user-friendly website. You must make it effortless for your users to do what they intend to do! That could be as simple as learning a bit more about you, or contacting you, or as complex as buying your products, paying for them, and arranging for delivery.

Usability means the proper use of taglines, intuitive and simple website navigation, focused short content, and strategic use of visual elements. You must avoid confusing features or functionality at all costs! Keep asking yourself: do links and buttons appear clickable, as they should? Does your website flow logically? Are you making it perfectly clear where important content can be found?

If you answer “No” to even one of the above, you have not sufficiently focused on website usability or providing at a minimum an acceptable user experience. Which means you do not have a user-friendly website.

Why is Usability Important?

Make it simple and your visitors will not only stay on site and come back often; they will also recommend your site to their friends. Make it hard on your visitors and they will give up in frustration, leave, and never return.

Over 75% of website visitors stated they rank ease of finding website information the most important factor on a website. HubSpot.com

Therefore, if your business website or e-commerce store is too complicated to navigate, contains content that is difficult to understand, or contains burdensome functionality, it will not meet its objectives, and you will lose business, and in most cases money. Which is why website usability is so important if you want to build a user-friendly website.

What Your Website Visitors Expect

So, what exactly makes a successful or user-friendly website? I asked this at the beginning of this post. Now you have a better understanding how website usability is an integral part of the overall user experience. Here is the short version of what your website visitors will expect from your website or e-commerce store.

Any successful website must be customer-oriented at its core. All humans make decisions for two basic reasons: to relieve pain, or for personal gain. You don’t believe me? Why are you reading this post? You want or need a user-friendly website, correct? Therefore, you are reading this post to relieve the pain of an ineffective website and for the financial gain a better website will provide.

Therefore, if you help your visitors relieve their pain or provide increased benefits, they will love your website and reward you with their business. On the other hand, if you simply add needless functionality because you think it’s cool that will work against you. Your user experience must be focused on solving a problem in the most simple and effective manner.

There are many success stories on the web where a website wasn’t the first in its category, but its success was the result of being the best at what it does. Remember MySpace? It was popular before Facebook, but Facebook made staying connected with friends easier. Web Crawler was the first search engine to provide text search functionality. But even being acquired by AOL didn’t prevent it from being eclipsed by Google, because Google produced better search results.

Why Not Having a User-Friendly Website Hurts Your Business

When your website visitors first arrive on your website, they have certain basic expectations. Unless they are simply aimlessly surfing the web, they are on your site for a reason. As I mention ed earlier, that reason can be as simple as finding your contact info or learning your store hours, or as complex as making a reservation, scheduling an appointment, or purchasing a product. So, what happens when they are unable to do that?

It doesn’t really matter WHY they are unable to do what they intend. Maybe they do not want to wait for it to load, search for information, receive unnecessary or unrelated push messages or find it difficult to navigate. Any one of these is a usability failure. And those are costly!

If your website visitors do not get what they want and expect from your website or e-commerce store they will simply leave. They will continue their search and look for a competitor’s site that can give them what they want. They will not return to your site. And that pretty much renders your website useless as a lead generating tool. Ouch!

How You Can Build a User-Friendly Website

I covered usability, and how it relates to having a user-friendly website. If your website visitors are happy with the user experience you provide you, or more likely your professional web designer, have done a good job. But what if your website is anything but user-friendly? What if you fall short on usability? How do you fix that? Let me give you some tips.

Ideally you will address website usability and user experience at the beginning of your web design project. But it is never too late to build a user-friendly website. As you learned by now usability is key to having a user-friendly website. All you have to do is to ensure you consider the following key elements.

Effective Website Navigation

Your website navigation menu is the first step. It directs your visitors to the content they are looking for and shows them how to move from page to page. A user-friendly and simple website menu is a key aspect of having a user-friendly website. Here are the elements of an effective website menu:

Primary navigation– your primary navigation or top-level menu contains your main navigation links. It needs to be clear, logically structured and mobile-first. Making it difficult to access all the information on your site will result in your visitors leaving.

Secondary navigation– a secondary navigation or drop-down menu is a great way to provide users with additional information for sub or non-critical pages. This is an option usually limited to websites with lots of pages.

Breadcrumbs– breadcrumbs on pages give visitors a sense of direction and another layer of navigation in that they can return to the previous page by following breadcrumb links.

Search functionality– it is always a good idea to include a search box or search functionality on all your pages so that visitors can easily search for any information they may be looking for.

Hyperlinks– internal linking or hyperlinking certain keywords within the content of your pages is highly recommended. Not only does this allow visitors to navigate to pages with additional related information, it also provides significant search engine and search ranking benefits.

Sitemap–a sitemap of your website is a great way for visitors to easily view your entire website structure with linked content, as well as providing search engine benefits. You can build a sitemap page or use a simple HTML sitemap.

Simple menu links– make sure that all of your navigation links are short and to the point. Don’t be cute or cool; that will simply confuse your visitors. Do not use abbreviations or acronyms that visitors may not understand.

Optimized Content

Website content basically refers to the text content, images, videos, graphics, and any other visible elements on your site. This is what gets your website found online, attracts visitors, engages them, and ultimately converts them into purchasing your product or service.

If you want to build a user-friendly website you need to optimize your content to be impactful, relevant to your target audience, up-to-date and preferably interactive. In addition to SEO content here are some elements that you must to take into account if you want a user-friendly website:

Information architecture – structure your website content logically by arranging into pages and sub-pages, each focused on one relevant subject.

White space– allow for plenty of space between different content blocks and images. This makes your website visitors feel less overwhelmed by lots of content and encourages them to continue reading.

Legible fonts– use fonts that are easy to read and relate to and keep your font size to 16pts or higher. You do not want your readers squinting to try and read your content.

Broken content links– make sure you regularly check that internal and external links are full functional and do not lead to broken pages. This can be frustrating and will result to a bad user experience and lower search rankings.

Mobile-First Design

In 2019 most of your website visitors will visit your site from a mobile device at least once. And mobile consumers are becoming ever more sophisticated and demanding. Therefore, it is absolutely essential to provide them with an exceptional mobile-first user experience.

Having a website that does not meet mobile user expectations will work against your efforts to have a user-friendly website. Most often it will simply result in your website visitors leaving your website.

You can overcome this by having a mobile-first website. Mobile-first web design focuses on the user experience on small screens, such as a smartphone screen, and works up from there. This provides a better user experience across all devices and screen sizes, resulting in a much more user-friendly website.

Page Speed

Here is a statistic that may surprise you! In 2019 the average human attention span is less than that of your average goldfish. In other words, we are getting more and more impatient.

Optimized images– to improve page speed as a means to create a user-friendly website you need to make sure that all your images are optimized for speed by reducing image file size and using appropriate file formats.

Reduce server response times– make sure that your server is running at optimal levels to not bring down the load speed of your pages. Constantly monitor this to ensure consistency.

Browser caching– each time you click on a website or web page the elements that make up that page need to be loaded or downloaded. With caching all the elements are stored on your hard drive in a cache (temporary storage) so that when you visit this page or website again your browser doesn’t need to download all the elements again.

Avoid re-directs– re-directs increase server requests which slow down the load speed of your pages. Make sure that re-directs are kept to a minimum

Final Thoughts on Building a User-Friendly Website

Building a user-friendly website may sound simple at the beginning. Simply give your website visitors the info they are looking for, correct? But not having critical elements you will fall short on both usability and user expectations. Which means you will not achieve the results you expect or require. By addressing usability issues and making your website more user-friendly you can overcome the effects of delivering a poor user experience.

Having a user-friendly website has many benefits and many elements that need to be optimized to experience those benefits. Some of the benefits resulting from a user-friendly website are higher visitor retention numbers, lower bounce rates, increased engagement and conversation rates, and more social media shares and referrals.

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And if you are still not sure what all goes into user-friendly web design, don’t worry! Simply reach out and contact us. Our expert team will listen to you, answer your questions, and determine the best way to remove the obstacles in the way of your business objectives and continued growth. It is one of our specialties, after all!

Do You Have a User-Friendly Website?

Do you have a user-friendly website? Or did you discover some usability shortcomings? If so, how did you fix them? Did providing a better user-experience improve your online engagement and conversions? Or did you have other problems with your business website design? Please feel free to let us know so our audience can benefit as well and grab our feed so you don’t miss our next post! And feel free to share our post with your audience!

]]>69729New Business Essentials – Establishing an Effective Brandhttps://espresso.digital/establishing-an-effective-brand/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=establishing-an-effective-brand
Mon, 13 May 2019 18:00:05 +0000https://espresso.digital/?p=6732One of the first things you have to do when you start a new business is to establish an effective brand voice and image. But that is easier said than done! Getting off to the right start and establishing an effective brand and online presence takes effort and skill, and there are specific considerations that are individual to each business. Here are some essential branding tips to get you started!

How Do You Want Others to See You?

We work on brand development for a lot of start-up companies and professional service providers striking out on their own, and we often get asked for advice on brand strategy and establishing branding that gets noticed. Getting off to the right start and establishing an effective brand and online presence takes effort and skill, and there are specific considerations that are individual to each business.

Determine Who You Are!

This is probably the most important thing you need as your brand identity defines who you are as a business or professional and helps you stand out in your market place. Here are some of the elements to consider as you develop an effective brand:

Logo – the visual representation of you and/or your business, in our social age it also should include:

Icon – a simplified, smaller version of your logo for use on social and professional networking sites

Images – images can say a great deal about who you are

Colors – colors bring out different emotions in people

Fonts – keep your text easy to read and comprehend

Voice – how you communicate directly with others online and in person

Your brand should match your target audience; if you plan to open a spa you should consider a more feminine look and colors, while a bolder approach works well for an architect or urban planner, for instance. And the local coffee shop will most likely have a much edgier logo than a financial service provider.

The key aspect of establishing an effective brand is your actual brand logo. If you think clip art or even a design from a service like Fiverr or tool like Canva can help you rise above the digital noise you better think again! If you truly want a logo that actually represents your brand vision, voice, and value here are some essential elements any brand logo must have.

Consistency is a key aspect of establishing an effective brand. Once you have found your look and voice you need to make sure that it is correctly used and reproduced online and in print. This is especially important in today’s digital age.

Stand Above the Rest!

We are on Facebook. Find our images on Instagram. Follow us on Twitter. Did you see our latest YouTube video? If you believe that this approach will get your new business noticed we have to disappoint you, sorry! In 2019 too many brands are trying to stand out by doing the same old shit as everyone else.

If you really want to stand out you need a little piece of card stock called a business card. Never underestimate the importance of a well designed high quality business card to your marketing success. No other print collateral will give you the same bang for your buck than passing out your business card everywhere you can.

At a minimum your business card should include your company name and website, your name, and your basic contact info (phone, email). If required you should also list your street or mailing address, your slogan or tagline, or your most important products or services.

To help you avoid a very busy card design or extremely small text you may want to consider a double sided or folded card.

There are numerous options available to make your new business card stand out, such as rounded corners, die-cutting, embossed or de-bossed logos, foil-stamping, using a different texture or finish paper, or having your card printed on extra heavy card stock, plastic, metal, or even wood veneer. Odd size cards can also help you stand out, but you need to remember that business cards that are larger than the traditional 3.5” x 2” size are harder to carry with you or for your customers to file.

We highly recommend that you stay away from very cheap printing options. Giving out a flimsy card that is badly printed will reflect negatively on the level of quality and service of your new business. Professional designers and printing companies can usually recommend very cost effective options to get a high quality card.

Claim Your Online Identity!

At the very least you should purchase www.yourbusinessname.com* for two (2) years or longer. Search engines like Google and Bing will not index domains that are not registered for a minimum of two (2) years. You can also register your domain for five (5) and ten (10) years; the longer the registration the higher the rank on Google.

* Depending on the nature of your business you may want to register a .org for non-profits or a .edu domain for an accredited college or other educational institution.

The most valuable domain name is one indicating the name and the nature of your business. abccompany is not as effective as as abcplumbing or abcplumbingcompany, for instance. Short and easy to remember domain names work better, and we recommend avoiding different (cute) spellings and characters like hyphens or dashes as part of your domain name as well.

Non-Traditional Domains

In 2019 non-traditional domain extensions are both more common, and more effective in setting your brand apart. So don’t feel that in order to establish an effective brand you need to have a dotcom domain. This may actually work against you in a crowded digital market place. Depending on your business, service or product you may very well benefit from a domain such as .design, .coffee, .web, or even .porn.

If you are interested in learning more about both traditional and non-traditional domain names, and how they evolved since 1995, check out this cool domain names infographic!

Did you know that:

You do not “own” your domain, you “register” or “lease” it for a period of time. Think of it like leasing a car. At the end of your “lease” you have an option to renew; otherwise the domain reverts back to the available pool. We recommend GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com) as a domain registrar.

You can register as many domains as you wish. Different domains can be redirected to point at any other domain

Registering or “leasing” a domain does NOT include a place to host a website. In most cases it is not practical to host your own site, so you will need a hosting services provider. We can host your new website for you, or you can use a third party service provider. We recommend WP Engine (www.wpengine.com) or BlueHost (www.bluehost.com)

Build Your Online Presence!

Your prospective customers and clients will look at your online presence before they contact you. If you don’t have some sort of social media presence and website chances are your prospective customers and clients will look somewhere else. Therefore having an effective online presence is essential for any business.

An effective online presence is not a single thing. Successful brand development is a combination of different elements. As a minimum we recommend some or all of the following:

Website – even a simple one page site that tells your visitors who you are, what you do, and how to contact you is much better than nothing at all. A generic “Site Coming Soon” message, a page showing just a string of server code, or a page showing advertisements of your web host virtually guarantee your visitors will move on to your competitors, and that is definitely not what you want!

Facebook Business Page – this is where potential customers and clients can interact with your brand. Please don’t use your own page to promote your business, it violates Facebook’s rules.

LinkedIn Company Page – this is where professionals of all types look for resources and to make connections. By sure to establish and link your own professional LinkedIn profile to your company profile.

Depending on the nature of your business or organization you should also establish a presence on Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, Pinterest, and others.

Final Thoughts on Establishing an Effective Brand

Having these essentials will go a long way to getting your new business off to a great start, and you don’t have to spend a huge amount of money to get them. And remember, there is nothing wrong with starting small! As your business grows you can always add additional online and print components to help you with your marketing efforts. Just make sure that all the pieces follow your established brand.

The main thing to remember as you work on establishing an effective brand for your business or product company is that you are doing this not for your own tastes, but those of your target audience. Having an effective brand can go a long way to increase your brand visibility, including your website engagement. So listen to your audience, and fine tune your branding as you go along. Brand development is not something you do once and forget about it. It is an ongoing process.

Feel free reach out to us and learn more about brand development services. Our team can help you determine exactly what type of brand identity and voice you really need, and help you create the information strategy and online presence you need to attract, engage and convert more visitors.

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So, How Is Your Branding?

Now that you read this post how do you feel about your brand strategy? Did it help you in establishing an effective brand? Or do you feel that your brand development may be missing the mark? If so, what do you think is missing from your brand voice and image? Please feel free to let us know so our audience can benefit as well, and grab our feed so you don’t miss our next post! And feel free to share our post with your audience!

]]>6732A Content Marketing Checklist for Blogshttps://espresso.digital/content-marketing-checklist-blogs/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=content-marketing-checklist-blogs
Thu, 09 May 2019 18:00:39 +0000https://espresso.digital/?p=10125Many business use blogging as part of their content marketing strategy in 2019. Yet all too often bloggers overlook opportunities for making their posts go further. Our content marketing checklist for blogs will show you what to do to improve your blog content and promotion in order to increase your online reach and engagement.

The Benefits of a Content Marketing Checklist for Blogs

Believe us, we know the feeling! You have an awesome idea for a blog post and can’t wait to write and post it. Before you forget your idea you sit down, crank out your blog post, schedule it for posting, and voila! Your awesome blog post is out there for all to enjoy. But did you remember to make your post all that it can be? Many bloggers overlook opportunities for making their posts go further. Our content marketing checklist for blogs will show you what to do.

Our content marketing checklist for blogs lists 25 simple questions any blogger can ask themselves before publishing their posts. Just like any good story, a good blog post has to grab your attention, arouse interest which leads to desire and action. If you want or need to reach the largest possible audience you will need to do at least some promotion as well. You can simply follow the steps in our content marketing checklist for blogs from beginning to end, or just those parts where you need to improve your posts.

We already mentioned the B2B Business Blogging Benefits in an earlier blog post. Now we want to show you how to create an effective content marketing post. From the creation of an attention grabbing headline and intriguing introduction, writing the body of your blog post, and bringing it to a successful conclusion our content marketing checklist for blogs gives you step-by-step instructions. We even give you some valuable tips for promoting your blog post.

25 Things to Consider for Effective Blogging

Headline – Attention

1. Is my headline clear, precise, and interesting enough?
2. Is my headline evoking any emotions?
3. Does my headline contain keywords or phrases that someone would type in search engines like Google and is less than 70 characters long? (In order not to get truncated on Google SERPs).
4. Does my headline use a H1 header tag?

Introduction – Interest

5. Does it give a good overview about what the post is all about?
6. Is it short enough (one to two paragraphs) and is it triggering people’s desire to read through the entire post?

Body – Desire

7. Are my paragraphs short enough (usually 5-7 lines long)?
8. Am I using subheadings with the correct header tags? (Usually H2, H3, and H4 are more than enough)
9. Am I engaging the reader by using a more personal writing style? (i.e. describing a personal experience, asking questions, etc.)
10. Do I format my post correctly using bullets, lists, italics, bold, quotes, etc.?
11. Do I enhance my content by including media such as images, infographics, video, audio, etc.?
12. Is my content concise and to the point without fluff or fancy and boring expressions?
13. Am I appealing to emotions such as anger, humor, or curiosity?
14. Do I link to other authoritative websites?
15. Do I increase my credibility by mentioning other people’s quotes and opinions?

Conclusion – Action

16. Do I summarize my post in one or two short paragraphs?
17. Do I end my post with a question? (to generate comments and invite readers to a conversation)
18. Is my conclusion enticing enough to encourage people reading my post? (for those who scroll down to the conclusion before actually reading the post)

Promoting Your Blog Post

19. Am I publishing my post to social media at the ideal day and time? (take a look at the Best Times to Post on Social Media in 2019 according to Sprout Social to get some ideas)
20. Do I have an email collection mechanism set up on my blog? (email newsletter or subscriber optins)
21. Am I able to offer something valuable (like a free ebook or membership) in exchange for a visitor’s email?
22. Do I have social sharing functionality throughout my post?
23. Do I use social media meta tags when sharing my content on social networks?
24. Do I mention my sources and influencers when sharing>
25. Do I share my content more than once?

Need Help With Your Blogging?

As you can see from our content marketing checklist for blogs this is not rocket science. Most of you are probably already doing some of this. But we understand how easy it can be to miss a step or two in the excitement. This is the main reason we wanted to share this list with you. We use it ourselves, and it does work!

But what if you are just not into blogging? It is a personal inclination for some people, and a time constraint for others. This is another reason many small businesses do not blog at all. There is another a solution! There are many talented writers and bloggers out there that can create effective and engaging content. If you don’t feel up to creating your own blog content spend a little money and have someone do it for you!

The Design of Your Blog Counts

Of course, it does help to have a well-designed blog to start. You can have awesome and relevant content, but it will not do you much good if your actual blog lacks mobile-first functionality and appeal. Modern and increasingly mobile consumers are getting ever more demanding and sophisticated. They expect a lot from your blog, and you better deliver.

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And if you are still not sure what you need to get your blog and content up to par, don’t worry! Simply reach out and contact us. Our expert team will listen to you, answer your questions, and find the best way to remove the obstacles in the way of your blogging goals. It is one of our specialties, after all!

Is Blogging Part of Your Content Marketing Strategy?

Are you blogging? How is that working out for you and your brand? Is it helping your business and search rankings? Or do you feel that you are simply wasting your time and effort? If so, where do you feel you are falling short? Please leave your comments below so our audience can benefit as well, and grab our feed so you don’t miss our next post! And feel free to share our content marketing checklist for blogs with your audience!

]]>10125The Elements of an Effective Brand Logohttps://espresso.digital/the-elements-effective-brand-logo/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-elements-effective-brand-logo
Thu, 02 May 2019 18:00:57 +0000https://espresso.digital/?p=10156So you have a business, but is it standing out from the digital noise? That all depends on your brand logo, and how well it relates to who you are, what you do, and what differentiates you from your competitors. Here is what you need to consider to create an effective brand logo for your startup, business or product brand.

Your Brand Strategy Begins With Your Brand Logo

Simply put, your brand logo is the key of any effective brand strategy. As we outlined in our recent Small Business Branding Mistakes You Need to Avoid blog post, not having a professionally designed brand logo will hurt you! For most customers your logo will be the first impression they have of your brand. That is the key reason why an effective brand logo is essential for your brand recognition. Just think of Apple, Nike, or McDonald’s and you get the idea. A poorly designed, or (gasp!) clip art logo, creates a very bad first impression. Learn how you can do better by identifying the Elements of an Effective Brand Logo.

When you begin to develop your brand, you most likely will start with your brand logo. Logos do a lot of heavy lifting for your brand strategy right from the start. An effective brand logo provides the framework for relationship building. So what makes an effective brand logo? It is a combination of subtle visual cues that give a solid first impression. Your brand logo should be a quick read that conveys clearly what your name is, along with colors and shapes that further indicate what your brand represents.

What Is An Effective Brand Logo?

A Credible Logo

Your logo needs to look professional and clear in order to make people confident enough to want to do business with you. This pretty much excludes any sort of clip art or logos built with an online logo generator. If you don’t invest in your own brand why should other people trust you?

A Logo That Defines What You Do

One of the easiest ways to do this is to include a bug or design element that quickly communicates what it is that your business does in a precise way. A misleading logo gives the impression that you don’t quite know what you are doing or where you are going.

A Logo That Communicates Your Brand Message

Along with visual clues you want to pick fonts and colors that represent your brand message. Choose design elements that further enhance your brand image and spread your brand message.

An Updated and Modern Logo

A modern looking and feeling logo communicates that you are aware of current industry trends and are going to employ the most efficient and advanced tactics to help their business. If your logo is more than ten years old you should consider refreshing it.

A Simple Logo

Simplicity and straightforwardness communicate confidence and power, which is what you want. Overly elaborate or detailed logos tend to confuse customers. And at small sizes, such as on your website or business cards, all those little details are lost anyway.

A Versatile Logo

Don’t get tied down with a brand logo that only works one way. Especially in today’s digital world it is essential that your brand logo performs equally well in a variety of sizes across multiple devices. In addition to being your logo it may also have to function as a favicon, profile image, or icon for your social profiles.

A Logo That Stands Out From The Competition

Ownability is king. You want your logo to be unique unto you and not be confused with another brand, especially your competitors. Take a look at your competitors brand logos before you decide on your own. Always remember, if you don’t own your brand, someone else will!

A Logo That Forms Personal Connections

Good communication is a foundation of good business. You can set out in the right direction with a clear, concise logo that builds personal connections from the beginning. Maybe you are reading this because a #highlycaffeinated yellow umbrella peaked your interest. It happens every day!

Creating an Effective Brand Logo

Now that you understand the elements of an effective brand logo you may need to take a close look at your own brand logo and see how it measures up. We always recommend starting with what we call the “low-hanging fruit” first. Maybe you just need to clean it up a little, choose a better font, or find a more suitable color palette.

In some cases, however, you are better of to start from scratch and create a new brand logo, and perhaps even a new brand strategy. Our elements of an effective brand logo outline all the pieces you need to consider. You may want to consider working with a professional graphic designer or brand strategist to guide you through the process of creating an effective brand logo.

Need Help WITH YOUR Branding?

Here at ESPRESSO.digital, we offer a full range of branding services, including branding and brand strategy development, information design, and a range of other creative services. Contact us to learn more about our brand strategy and design services, and how our team can help you achieve your business goals through creating an effective brand logo and strategy for your business, and help you create the brand image and presence you need to attract, engage and convert your target audience.

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Is Your Branding EFFECTIVE?

Do you have an existing brand image and identity? Is it helping you stand out from your competitors? Or do you feel it is lacking in some way? Please feel free to let us know so our audience can benefit as well, and grab our feed so you don’t miss our next post! And feel free to share our post with your audience!

]]>10156B2B Business Blogging Tips and Benefitshttps://espresso.digital/b2b-business-blogging-tips/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=b2b-business-blogging-tips
Mon, 29 Apr 2019 18:00:20 +0000https://espresso.digital/?p=10069Unfortunately many business owners don't see the value of having a business blog, or mistakenly believe that blogging is not effective for their business. As a result they are missing out on key B2B Business Blogging Benefits. But with a little effort any kind of business can establish an effective blog and get B2B business blogging benefits at the same time.

B2B Business Blogging Benefits

We are big advocates of content marketing, and blogging is a major aspect of content marketing. Unfortunately many business owners don’t see the value of having a business blog, or mistakenly believe that blogging is not effective for their business. As a result they are missing out on key B2B Business Blogging Benefits. That is unfortunate as with a little effort any kind of business can establish an effective blog and get B2B business blogging benefits at the same time.

There are a number of ways in which B2B business blogging benefits companies of any kind. Blogging is a great way to create relevant and up-to-date content for your website, which is essential for ranking on search engines. By blogging about their area of expertise business can also establish themselves as trusted resources, which leads to an increase in return visits to your website. And sharing your blog posts provides you with valuable backlinks, which is another cool business blogging benefit.

For those of you who are still not sure how a blog or blogging benefits your digital marketing efforts we have broken it down into the essentials. Take a look at how B2B business blogging works and how you can get the most B2B business blogging benefits for your business.

Basic B2B Business Blogging Tips

Below are some basic B2B business blogging tips to help you get started creating content and sharing it with your eagerly awaiting audience. You didn’t even know you had one of those, did you?

Why is Business Blogging Important?

Blogging is the #1 way to attract visitors to your website. Delivering relevant and informative content also positions your business as an industry leader and builds trust among your prospective customers.

B2B Business blogging does all the following:

Drives website traffic

Helps convert website traffic into leads

Helps to establish trust and authority

Holds both short and long-term results

According to Social Media B2B: “B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads than those that don’t.“

Who Is Your Target Audience?

Focusing on the needs, challenges and expectations of your prospects and existing customers will help shape your blog content so that it resonates with your intended audience. Here is how to you can do that:

Where Can You Find Your Audience?

Optimizing your blog posts allows your content to be found by search engines.Consider the relevant keywords or phrases that your consumers are searching for and incorporate these terms in your blog posts.

According to ContentPlus: “Websites with blogs have 434% more indexed pages than those without.” That’s a lot of pages!

What Should You Write About?

To engage the biggest potential audience your blog needs to offer your visitors, leads, prospects, and existing customers with focused content that they are searching for and value. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Creative helpful and informative content that is relevant to your industry

When Should You Post?

The more often you blog the more likely your website will appear in search engines. For best results we recommend blogging at least twice a month, more often is better! So post often and consistently! Keep in mind that:

Blogs get the highest traffic on Monday mornings

Blogs published on Thursdays get the most social shares

According to socialmarketingwriting.com: “Businesses that blog daily get 5 times more traffic than those that post weekly or less.“

How Should You Get Started?

Start off and research some keywords. We recommend SEMrush to help you find the juiciest keywords and phrases! What do your viewers look for when they come to your website? What is a common problem you solve for them? Follow these basic steps for creating effective blog posts:

Choose a relevant topic and keywords

Create content that is helpful and desired by your buyer personas (see above)

Getting Started with B2B Business Blogging

Now that you understand the benefits of B2B business blogging you may be eager to start your own business blog. Some of you may already be blogging, and just need a few reminders. You can simply use our B2B business blogging tips to get started.

Not everyone is a natural blogger, and forcing yourself will not provide the desired results. If that is you here are some options. Maybe you know an expert in your field who happens to blog. If not, check with your local college or university to see if they offer writing or blogging courses; students looking for course credit can be a very cost-effective option.

Be aware that students are not as experienced as professionals, so be sure to check that their posts meet your requirements. If you are interested in a more authoritative voice you may need to find a professional copywriter. You don’t want to create the wrong brand voice, after all!

Need Help with Your Blog?

Yes, it does help to have a well-designed blog to start. You can have awesome and relevant content, but it will not do you much good if your actual blog lacks mobile-first functionality and appeal. Modern and increasingly mobile consumers are getting ever more demanding and sophisticated. They will expect a lot from your blog, and you better deliver.

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And if you are still not sure what you need to get your blog and content up to par, don’t worry! Simply reach out and contact us. Our expert team will listen to you, answer your questions, and determine the best way to remove the obstacles in the way of your blogging objectives and reach. It is one of our specialties, after all!

Is Blogging Part of Your Content Marketing Strategy?

Are you blogging? How is that working out for you and your brand? Is it helping your business and search rankings? Or do you feel that you are simply wasting your time and effort? If so, where do you feel you are falling short? Please leave your comments below so our audience can benefit as well, and grab our feed so you don’t miss our next post! And feel free to share our content marketing checklist for blogs with your audience!

]]>10069Brand Strategy – Knowing Who You Arehttps://espresso.digital/brand-strategy-knowing-who-you-are/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=brand-strategy-knowing-who-you-are
Mon, 22 Apr 2019 18:00:36 +0000https://espresso.digital/?p=6570Knowing who you are is an important aspect of any successful brand strategy, yet it is all too often overlooked. Especially start-ups are usually more concerned with product development and marketing / fundraising, but even established companies can forget the value of their brand. And that thinking will work against you! How are you expecting your existing and potential customers to remember you if you don't even know who you are?

Do you know who you are?

Knowing who you are is an important aspect of any successful brand strategy, yet it is all too often overlooked. Start-ups, for example, are typically more concerned with product development and marketing / fundraising than with brand strategy. But even established companies can forget the value of their brand. And that thinking will work against you! How do you expect your existing and potential customers to remember you if you don’t even know who you are?

What’s more, your brand defines not only who you are, but also how you want others to see you. Your potential clients will most likely encounter your brand long before they have any contact with you directly. What is the first impression you want them to have? In other words, what does your branding say about you and your business?

There are a lot of different things that can determine the best brand strategy for your particular service or business. These include your own preferences, your cultural and ethical practices, your intended target audience, and the nature of your product or service. In today’s globally-networked economy, you simply cannot afford to overlook these details.

So who exactly are you?

The first question you need to ask yourself as you determine your own brand strategy is, “Who am I?” Without a clear understanding of who and what you are, you cannot market yourself effectively! Where do you start? Ask yourself these questions:

Who are you? – Do you like your company or brand name? Does it reflect who you are and your product or service? How do –or will — your customers relate to it? If you are stuck in the wrong brand, it will muddy your marketing message!

What do you do? – Do you provide only one service, or is it actually two or more separate services that work together? Is there a product your clients are not yet aware of? Make sure you tell people what makes you different from your competition!

Is someone else doing the same thing? – Make sure that your brand name is not copyrighted or trademarked and that you can legally license it for your business. And find out if you can purchase the corresponding domain! Having special characters and an unusual spelling will make it more difficult to know who you are!

Can you be misunderstood? – People will be influenced by their own cultural and ethnic background, so make sure your business or brand name is not offensive or has hidden/different meanings in other languages or cultures. Would you shop at a store that insulted you?

Why You Need to Consider Your Brand

An engaging brand with an authentic voice will not only set you apart from your competition — it will also be your ambassador to countless potential clients. While it will take time and effort to build and nurture an effective brand, it is a crucial investment in your business, the short and long-term benefits of which should never be overlooked.

considerations For An Effective brand strategy

This is sometimes easier said than done, but here are some basic considerations we ask our clients to keep in mind as we work with them to design their brand:

Keep it simple! – You have heard of Google, Apple, and Coca Cola, correct? All of those are short, easy to spell, and can be pronounced in any language. And even better, they are easy to remember! The harder it is to pronounce your business name, the harder it will be to remember!

Be yourself! – If you want to appear friendly and informal to a smaller local or regional audience, then don’t brand yourself as a multinational company. And stay with the traditional look if bold and modern does not fit you well. Your customers want to connect with the “real” you, not some logo.

Stand out a little! – Your customers will remember you more if you stand out from the crowd. If your brand is very similar to your competitors, you may want to make some changes. Sometimes a simple color change or a different font can make all the difference!

Find your own voice! – Your clients expect to engage with you on your website or social media. Determine what tone and voice they want to hear, and then stick with it!

Be clear! – People will not remember you if they don’t know what you do. Short names are great, but not if they are just a bunch of acronyms! My Co. Inc. is not nearly as memorable as My Company Provides This Service. This is even more important when you consider a domain name.

What are you working with? – If you are working with an existing brand, or if your new branding has to fit within other parameters, you will be faced with certain limitations. Knowing about them up front will save you a lot of frustration later on!

Remember print! – Yes, that sounds a little strange coming from a web design team, but never underestimate the power of print marketing — business cards, inserts, post cards and brochures. Print materials add a personal touch and enable direct person-to-person marketing. So make sure that your brand and logo look as cool on a poster as on your iPad!

Feel free reach out to us and learn more about brand development services. Our team can help you determine exactly what type of brand identity and voice you really need, and help you create the information strategy and online presence you need to attract, engage and convert more visitors.

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So, How Is Your Branding?

Now that you read this post how do you feel about your brand strategy? Is it helping you attract, engage and convert your ideal target audience? Or do you feel that your branding may be missing the mark? If so, what do you think is missing from your brand voice and image? Please feel free to let us know so our audience can benefit as well, and grab our feed so you don’t miss our next post! And feel free to share our post with your audience!

]]>65708 Fatal Website Errors That Will Kill Your Business Websitehttps://espresso.digital/fatal-website-errors/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fatal-website-errors
Mon, 15 Apr 2019 18:00:19 +0000http://espresso.digital/?p=65074Many business websites contain a few errors. Luckily many of those can be fixed relatively easy. But some errors are absolutely fatal to your business website! Here are 8 examples of mistakes that can kill any business website. Find out what they are, how they damage your site and reputation, and how you can avoid them altogether.

What Are Fatal Website Errors?

Are you just starting on a website redesign project, making some website updates, or getting a new website for your business? In that case you need to be aware of the following fatal website errors. Many businesses have websites that do little to attract your ideal target audience. Don’t let that happen to you! Fatal website errors will have a direct impact on your business.

Simply put, fatal website errors either prevent users from accessing your site, or provide such a bad first impression that potential consumers would rather go somewhere else. By hiring a professional web design agency you can usually avoid these fatal website errors. But if you designed your own site or hired an amateur web designer you want to check for these fatal website errors on your site.

8 Fatal Website Errors to Avoid!

Not Having a Mobile-First Website

This is the most serious of our fatal website errors. In 2019 the majority of your online visitors will use a mobile device at least once while surfing your website. If your website does not provide an awesome mobile experience your potential customers will find one that does. Plus not having a mobile-friendly site is a direct violation of the Google Mobile-Friendly Algorithm Update of 2015, and you will not make the Google Mobile-First Index either.

Still Using Flash

This should not even be part of fatal website errors you can make in 2019! Once the epitome of a cool website Flash is obsolete for web design. Not only does it have significant SEO and page speed shortcomings. More importantly it, Flash does not work on most mobile devices! Therefore still using Flash for your web design is totally outdated.

Using Pop Ups

Easily one of the most annoying of our fatal website errors is the use of pop ups on your site. And we are not alone. According to Hubspot 73% of website users dislike pop up adds. Not only that; Google has recently banned the use of interstitial pop ups on mobile devices. Our recommendation is not to use pop ups at all. If you do want to use them minimize the effect of disrupting the user experience of your site visitors.

No Above the Fold Content

Website visitors come to your website to get information, buy a product, or otherwise interact with your business. That means you need to tell them what to do. Many “cool” websites fail in that regard. You know what I mean; beautifully designed sites with stunning images, and absolutely no above the fold content. And that makes it one of our fatal website errors. Your above the fold section must not be limited to hero images or CTA buttons. Add at least some context so visitors can figure out what your site is all about.

Having a Splash Page

Years ago having a splash or intro page for your website seemed pretty cool. It gave visitors a little teaser of things to come. In 2019 this is the worst thing that you can have on your website. Not only does it slow down your website; it also prevents visitors from accessing your business info. Don’t make this fatal website error and reconsider having a splash page for your site.

Not Cross Browser or Device Compatible

Another one of our fatal website errors is only checking your website on one browser. This is the Internet, and not everything will look and work the same on all browsers and devices. At the very least you need to make sure that your website is rendering correctly in the latest versions of major browsers such as Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Internet Explorer. If you don’t have access to all of them you can use this browser emulator to check your site.

Repeating Background Images

This is another dinosaur in our fatal website errors. Repeating background images were a cool design effect, about 10 years ago! If you still use them in 2019 your website, and by extension your business, will appear totally outdated. Repeating background images also slow down your site, and in most cases they are just not visually appealing.

Not Focusing on Mobile Users

The last of our fatal website errors involves sites that are not focusing on mobile consumers. You must pay attention to this, as most consumers will use a mobile device to access your site at least once during their journey of conversion. Mobile-friendly website elements include breaking up content into bite-size chunks, using images and lists to facilitate content scanning, and having size-appropriate click targets on mobile devices.

Final Thoughts on Fatal Website Errors

Now that you know what they are you can check your business website for fatal website errors. If you recently redesigned your site or got a brand new site for your business you should be good. The most common website error we find on new sites are pop ups or insufficient above the fold content. Both of those are relatively easy to fix.

Older websites tend to contain more fatal website errors. How you can go about fixing them depends on a number of factors. They include the amount of time since your last redesign, the number of fatal website errors, and the results you need from your business website.

If you only have a few fatal website errors a simple website update most likely will correct them all. But if you have serious web development issues, or if you made most or all of these fatal website errors on your site, getting a new website will be the most time and cost-effective option for you.

By using this form you agree with the storage and handling of your data by this website. Learn more.

And if you are still not sure what all goes into user-friendly web design, don’t worry! Simply reach out and contact us. Our expert team will listen to you, answer your questions, and determine the best way to remove the obstacles in the way of your business objectives and continued growth. It is one of our specialties, after all!

Did You Fix Fatal Errors on Your Website?

Did you have any fatal website errors on your site? If so, how did you fix them? Did fixing these errors improve your online engagement and conversions? Or did you have other problems with your business website design? Please feel free to let us know so our audience can benefit as well and grab our feed so you don’t miss our next post! And feel free to share our post with your audience!

]]>65074Website Redesign Versus Website Update – How To Determine What You Needhttps://espresso.digital/website-redesign-versus-website-update/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=website-redesign-versus-website-update
Thu, 11 Apr 2019 18:00:48 +0000http://espresso.digital/?p=65050Yes, it is important to keep your business website up-to-date. But that does not necessarily mean you have to start from scratch. Find out when a website redesign is the best approach, and when a simple website update will suffice.

]]>Website Redesign Versus Website Update – How To Determine What You Need

Website Redesign Versus Website Update

These days we get a lot of phone calls and emails that start something like this: “I need a new website. Please help!” The reasons are understandable; both human visitors and Google have certain expectations when it comes to websites. The trick is to decide between a website redesign versus website update for your business website.

Your business website is a key element of your overall digital marketing strategy. Therefore it is really important you keep it both up-to-date and updated . But that doesn’t mean you have to fresh every time! Yes, you do need to start with a mobile-first website at some point. Maybe that time is now. If you already have a functional website it comes down to website redesign versus website update.

Redesigning a website is a major undertaking, and there are website redesign considerations you need to keep in mind before you decide. Yes, there are times when building a completely new website makes sense, especially if you have a long to-do or wish list. Other websites may cover all the basics already. In that case you can give your website a boost with a simple website update.

“In a crowded market, having a website that simply serves as a brochure is no longer competitive.” — Small Business Marketing Trends Report

When we start evaluating the need of a website redesign versus website update we follow five basic steps. To help you decide which approach works best for your situation and requirements we decided to publish them here. If you’ve got the basics then maybe you just need a refresh or update of certain areas. But if you are falling short on all five it is time for a shiny new website!

Website Redesign Versus Website Update – 5 Questions You Must Answer!

1) Do You Have a Mobile-First Site?

In 2019 having a mobile-first business website is essential. No matter what your business, most of your online visitors will come from a mobile device. If your site does not offer an ideal user experience they will go elsewhere. A mobile-first site meets the following criteria:

Renders appropriately on different screen sizes by resizing and repositioning design elements on smaller screens

Fast page load speed across all devices

Has size-appropriate links and buttons that are easy to click on small screens

Simple design without distracting elements and generous use of white space

Utilizes mobile navigation to help users find different pages, products, and services

Provides bite-sized chunks of content that are easy to scan on mobile devices

Limits the use of memory and resource intensive functionality on mobile devices

If you look at mobile-first websites you will notice certain similarities in design and functionality. Most sites will feature the “Hamburger Menu” at the top, contact info and socials in the footer, and screen size appropriate content in between. Content will be easy to scan on smaller screens, and the entire experience is pleasant and engaging.

These are the things that the average mobile user expects from your. If you already have all or most of the above requirements covered you most likely will only need to update certain elements of your website. But if you fall short on more than one or two of the above you should really consider a website redesign versus website update.

2) Do You Have Outdated or Obsolete Design Elements or Content?

The next step in deciding between a website redesign versus website update is to look at the design and content of your website. Let’s start with some basic design elements.

Sometimes, certain parts of websites are just flat-out obsolete. The old table-based websites that sit on the top left corner of your browser are one extreme example! But there are many other outdated design elements that are definitely working against you.

Outdated Design Elements

Any Flash based elements

Splash or landing screens

Auto-play audio or sound tracks

Using too many colors and fonts

Too many or inconsistent design elements

Using too many stock images or clip art

Excessive popups on desktops and laptops (Google forbids them on mobile devices!)

Inconsistent navigation menus

Too-small or low-quality images

While design elements are an important part of having an engaging website don’t forget about the content. Outdated content will make your business seem outdated as well; it is as simple as that! As you consider website redesign versus website update be sure to keep your content in mind!

“59% of consumers globally would rather engage with content that’s beautifully designed as opposed to simply designed —even when short on time.” — Adobe

Broken links, including updating existing links as needed, and removing all broken links

Social media, including links to your social profiles AND the ability to share your content on social networks

The design and content of your existing website play an important part of your website redesign versus website update considerations. Most often a simple website content update meets mobile consumer expectations. You may want to consider adding new fresh content as part of a web design update. But if you fall short on most the above considerations it is time for a new website!

3) Search Engine Optimization

Ever since the Google Mobile-Friendly Algorithm Update of April 2015 your website must pass the mobile-friendly test to rank on search engines. But that is only the beginning. Your website design and content must comply with a number of Google guidelines for best search results. Therefore SEO has to play an important part in your website redesign versus website update considerations.

Put bluntly, if you do not have a mobile-friendly website your only option is a website redesign. Google prohibits having a separate mobile website, so that option is out. And there are other reasons to consider a website redesign versus website update simply for SEO benefits.

SEO Considerations

Search engines prefer websites coded to the latest standards instead of having to crawl through endless bloated code.

Websites based on modern Content Management Systems (CMS) make it easier to add Meta Data such as page and image descriptions.

Mobile-first websites tend to load faster, which is a search-ranking signal

Including key SEO considerations in determining your website redesign versus website update only makes sense. A loss in search ranking is usually one way business owners find out their website is no longer effective. And in the ever more competitive field of online marketing your business needs to follow the latest SEO trends.

4) How are Visitors Navigating Your Website?

Part of the consideration between website redesign versus website update has to deal with user behavior and user expectations. In order to do that you need to understand how visitors are navigating your website. In other words, are they finding what they expect to find? And how can you find out?

We recommend services like Hotjar as a good way to get information on what your current visitors are doing. This type of service can give you a “heat map” of where your customers click, giving you insight into what is resonating with your audience, and the path they are taking, or searching for. You don’t want to remove or ignore section that’s popular enough to bring people in.

You can also gather valuable insights through your Google Analytics dashboard. Remember that these services must be installed and running for at least 30 days before they can gather the data you need. Therefore you need to start with this type of analytics as soon as you can so that you can gain insights what sort of updates will benefit your website.

5) What Devices Is Your Target Audience Using?

Most likely you are not considering a website redesign versus website update simply for the hell of it. You are doing this because you need a business website that works for your business, not against it. And that means a key consideration here are the expectations of your intended target audience. After all, you are updating or redesigning your website for them, not you!

The first step is to find how visitors are accessing your site. That depends on a lot of factors, including age, location, intent, and personal preferences. Once you know if your visitors are surfing on their iPad or researching at the office you must find out what they do once they are on your site.

“Nearly 8 in 10 of consumers would stop engaging with content that doesn’t display well on their device.” — Adobe

But devices alone aren’t the story. They are simply a tool for viewing your website. A better approach is to decide which devices drive the most revenue to your site. For example, if desktop visitors are 30% of your traffic but 80% of your business revenue you need to focus on that target demographic.

On the other hand, if your business targets mainly Millenials you obviously need to offer an awesome mobile experience. We always recommend you look at these things holistically and figure out the characteristics of your most valuable demographics.

What Will It Be: Website Redesign Versus Website Update?

There you have it, five simple questions to help decide on a website redesign versus website update. Once you answered them you can focus on tweaking your site to emphasize what’s been helping it succeed and lower (or outright cut) anything that’s been dragging it down.

As you can see there is a big difference between a website redesign versus website update. A website redesign is a complex undertaking that you should only consider if your current website has significant shortcomings. If your business website has not had a refresh in three or more years you are most likely due for a redesign.

Website updates, however, are far less complex. We actually recommend updating your website at least once a week with some fresh content as part of an ongoing content marketing strategy. You can schedule more extensive updates, such as replacing images in galleries and slide shows about two to four times a year.

The Difference Between a Website Redesign Versus Website Update

Based on many years of professional experience we generally follow these guidelines:

Website Update

Plan on a website update as part of regular website maintenance at least two to four times a year depending on your business or service. Consider a website update like spring cleaning for your website. Open the windows for fresh air, sweep out the cobwebs, and put some fresh flowers on the table.

Typical website updates:

Updating relevant content, including images and video

Verify all contact info and social are current

Adding more content or pages

Making minor design tweaks, such as updating the color of your CTA

Adding or removing a special offer or promo

Adding and updating product and image galleries

Updating SEO keywords and phrases to match search trends

Editing or updating SEO Meta descriptions and image Alt tags

Website updates usually take a few days, and the business owner can do much of this with minimal help from a web designer. This makes a simple update much more cost and time-effective than a complete website redesign.

Website Redesign

On the other hand, if your current website is not mobile-friendly or does not meet most of your business goals you are better off with a website redesign. We actually recommend that you redesign your business website every 2 – 5 years depending on your business and industry.

Reasons for a website redesign include:

Not having a mobile-first site

No content management system (CMS)

Unable to update basic content yourself

Not meeting the expectations of your target audience

Not being able to add required content and/or functionality

Following outdated web design and development standards

Having too many outdated web design elements

A website redesign usually requires the services of a professional web designer or agency, and can take 4 to 8 weeks or longer depending on your website and requirements. Since you are going to make significant changes you may want to consider adding content strategy or copywriting, new product or location images, search engine optimization and social media marketing to your project.

It may also be time to evaluate your current content management system and website hosting to decide if you need to make changes. If they are no longer meeting your needs you should make that part of your website redesign versus website update evaluation.

By using this form you agree with the storage and handling of your data by this website. Learn more.

And if you are still not sure what all goes into user-friendly web design, don’t worry! Simply reach out and contact us. Our expert team will listen to you, answer your questions, and determine the best way to remove the obstacles in the way of your business objectives and continued growth. It is one of our specialties, after all!

Did You Need an Updated or Redesigned Website?

Did you recently decide your online presence needed a refresh? Was an update the better option? Or did you opt for a complete website redesign? And what kind of results did you achieve afterwards? Please feel free to let us know so our audience can benefit as well and grab our feed so you don’t miss our next post! And feel free to share our post with your audience!